Yet few know the richly varied private life that lies behind this icon, whose statuesque height and warmly enthused warble have become synonymous with the art of cooking.In this biography we meet the earthy and outrageous Julia, who, at age eighty-five, remains a complex role model. Fitch, who had access to all of Julia's private letters and diaries, takes us through her life, from her exuberant youth as a high-spirited California girl to her years at Smith College, where she was at the center of every prank and party. When most of her girlfriends married, Julia volunteered with the OSS in India and China during World War II, and was an integral part of this elite corps. There she met her future husband, the cosmopolitan Paul Child, who introduced her to the glories of art, fine French cuisine, and love. Theirs was a deeply passionate romance and a modern marriage of equals.Julia began her culinary training only at the age of thirty-seven at the Cordon Bleu. Later she roamed the food markets of Marseilles, Bonn, and Oslo. She invested ten years of learning and experimentation in what would become her first bestselling classic, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Now, her career is legend, spanning nearly forty years and still going strong. Generations love the humor and trademark aplomb that have made Julia a household name. Resisting fads and narrow, fanatical conventions of health-consciousness, Julia is the quintessential teacher. The perfect gift for food lovers and a romantic biography of a woman modern before her time, this is a truly American life.

    Although the dozen biographies devoted to Rimbaud’s life depend on one main source for information—his own correspondence—a complete edition of these remarkable letters has never been published in English. Until now.A moving document of decline, Rimbaud’s letters begin with the enthusiastic artistic pronouncements of a fifteen-year-old genius, and end with the bitter what-ifs of a man whose life has slipped disastrously away. But whether soapboxing on the essence of art, or struggling under the yoke of self-imposed exile in the desert of his later years, Rimbaud was incapable of writing an uninteresting sentence. As translator and editor Wyatt Mason makes clear in his engaging Introduction, the letters reveal a Rimbaud very different from our expectations. Rimbaud—presented by many biographers as a bohemian wild man—is unveiled as “diligent in his pursuit of his goals . . . wildly, soberly ambitious, in poetry, in everything.”I Promise to Be Good: The Letters of Arthur Rimbaud is the second and final volume in Mason’s authoritative presentation of Rimbaud’s writings. Called by Edward Hirsch “the definitive translation for our time,” Mason’s first volume, Rimbaud Complete (Modern Library, 2002), brought Rimbaud’s poetry and prose into vivid focus. In I Promise to Be Good, Mason adds the missing epistolary pieces to our picture of Rimbaud. “These letters,” he writes, “are proofs in all their variety—of impudence and precocity, of tenderness and rage—for the existence of Arthur Rimbaud.” I Promise to Be Good allows English-language readers to see with new eyes one of the most extraordinary poets in history.From the Hardcover edition.

    His earliest images are of Europe in the 1930s and '40s. Here is a magnificent compilation of the world-renowned photographer's work that truly captures his famous "decisive moments" through people and places rich in beauty as well as turmoil. 200 photos.

    . . Rufin maintains a perfect balance between impatient detachment and compassionate curiosity. "The Abyssinian," like Thackeray's " Vanity Fair," carries the weight of history with good-humoured finesse' "The Times "'An ambitious first novel, dashing, abundant and, when necessary, vividly theatrical' "Times Literary Supplement"'[A] remarkably assured first novel . . . Rufin's writing is elegantly readable' "Independent"'It is old-fashioned enough to be delightful, and new enough to be moving' "Glasgow Herald "'Rufin offers the reader at least three different novels in the space of a single book: a tale of diplomatic intrigue, a voyage of discovery to a virtually unknown civilisation, and a chronicle of the adventures and loves of his irrepressible hero' "Daily Telegraph"

    It has been unoccupied for years but they are drawn to the charm and dignity lying under the grime and cobwebs. Even before the purchase goes through "les Anglais" are welcomed with genuine affection by their new neighbours. From their very first day at St Paradis, in the impoverished department of the Creuse, they begin to make close and lasting friendships in spite of the language barriers. But it is not only their neighbours who welcome them. Soon they are aware that the spirit of a former owner seems delighted to see her family home being restored to life. Indeed, it appears almost as if she has chosen the Loaders for this task..."A Bull by the Back Door" traces how the Loaders face what they describe as "A-Level Housebuying", complete with charts and copious documents, and how they nearly fail. It depicts life in the village of St Paradis and how the family are assimilated, as well as detailing what they do to bring their beautiful stone house back to life again. THE AUTHOR: Anne Loader started in journalism in 1965, with East Midland Allied Press in Lincolnshire and Norfolk. After her marriage she worked as a senior reporter on the Southern Evening Echo at Southampton. She was the feature writer on Northwich World from 1980-84 and was editor of the Crewe Guardian for ten years until 1995 when she was made redundant. She now runs Léonie Press, publishing short-run books on autobiography and local history. Anne originally wrote the book to amuse her elderly mother, who had lived in France in the 1920s and had instilled a passion for France in her daughter from her earliest years. Extracts were serialised in Living France magazine and the book was very well received, becoming Léonie Press's most successful title.SOME REVIEWS:Enchanting... Those who find Peter Mayle's books about life in Provence somewhat patronising of the locals will consider the francophile "A Bull by the Back Door" in refreshing contrast - Living FranceStunning illustrations - Northwich Guardian, Crewe Guardian Rival Peter Mayle - Evening Sentinel, Northwich Chronicle Simply takes you there - superb value for money - BBC Radio Stoke Couldn't put it down; I feel as if I've been there; Wonderfully readable; Just like our own experiences; Thank you for writing this book, I look forward to the next one! - Readers' comments A Bull by the Back Door starts with an account of 'A-level house buying' and many readers will recognise the false hopes and near-misses at the beginning of their search. The family's wholehearted acceptance by the villagers and their efforts to renovate the beautiful stone house will ring bells with anyone who has attempted the same thing and will act as encouragement to others just beginning. - French Property News

    Barely able to speak the language and fiercely proud of his Genoese heritage, it will nevertheless take Napoleon Bonaparte just 20 years to become absolute ruler of the country he once saw as his oppressor. Set against the murderous unpredictability of revolutionary politics and the battlefields of Italy, Egypt, and France, The Song of Departure introduces us to the man who would become the Little Emperor.

    Hundreds of thousands of people visit the house and gardens every year, enchanted by the vibrant-colored rooms restored just as they were in the house's heyday and decorated according to Monet's revolutionary views on color and light. As he moves through the house the author describes the mealtime rituals of the yellow dining room, the studio where Monet worked and entertained and the family activities that animated the blue room. She also opens the door to rooms not normally seen by the public - we catch a glimpse of private bedrooms and the cellar where wine was bottled and fruit preserved. This book is an invitation to visit the house on a summer's day in the 1890s to marvel at Monet's decorative vision and to experience some of the behind-the-scenes activities that underpinned the busy household.

    Many have tried to re-create her life, but none have succeeded more brilliantly than Pamela Marcantel in this, her dazzling debut.Here, in dramatic, richly imagined detail, is the full story of the peasant Jhanette, who, at the age of thirteen, is visited by St. Michel, and told she will be known to history at Jehanne the Maid, the girl who would save France from the English. Marcantel paints a fascinating portrait of medieval Europe--a world in which an illiterate girl, chosen by God, can lead an army and never turn back.After more than five hundred years, Joan of Arc lives again in this hypnotic blend of history and storytelling.

    He was also a radical political thinker and eventual exile from France; a gifted painter and architect; a visionary who conversed with Virgil, Shakespeare, and Jesus Christ; in short, a tantalizing personality who dominated and maddened his contemporaries.

    Often he has been portrayed as a violent, sociopathic demagogue. This biography challenges that interpretation and argues that without Marat’s contributions as an agitator, tactician, and strategist, the pivotal social transformation that the Revolution accomplished might well not have occurred. Clifford D. Conner argues that what was unique about Marat - which set him apart from all other major figures of the Revolution, including Danton and Robespierre - was his total identification with the struggle of the propertyless classes for social equality. This is an essential book for anyone interested in the history of the revolutionary period and the personalities that led it.

    Drawing on prehistory, protohistory, and Gallo-Roman antiquity, the twenty-six essays in this book focus on a particular place or artifact for the relevance inherent in each. A Bronze Age earring or the rippling wave pattern in Massiolite ceramic are more than archival curiosities for Sobin. Instead they invite inquiry and speculation on existence itself: Artifacts are read as realia, and history as an uninterrupted sequence of object lessons.As much travel writing as meditative discourse, Luminous Debris is enhanced by a prose that tracks, questions, and reflects on the materials invoked. Sobin engages the reader with precise descriptions of those very materials and the messages to be gleaned from their examination, be they existential, ethical, or political.An American expatriate living in Provence for the past thirty-five years, Gustaf Sobin shares his enthusiasm for his adopted landscape and for a vertical interpretation of its strata. In Luminous Debris he creates meaning out of matter and celebrates instances of reality, past and present.

    As head pastry chef of the famous Parisian establishment Fauchon and currently with the prestigious Ladurée, his proposals of new trends in flavors and textures have become a reference point for French and global pâtisserie. This book is an exceptional publication where the inspiration of Pierre Hermé is aimed directly at his colleagues. His technical knowledge, recipes, original processes, broad reaching advice, surprising ideas and personal tricks come together in order to produce a breadth of patisserie of incomparable quality. Mixing chocolate with cumin, or combining fruits with lavender or rose petals, are just a couple examples of his search for new flavors

    In this compelling biography, Charles Nicholl pieces together the shadowy story of Rimbaud's life as a trader, explorer, and gunrunner in Africa. Following his fascinating journey, Nicholl shows how Rimbaud lived out that mysterious pronouncement of his teenage years: "Je est un autre"—I is somebody else."Rimbaud's fear of stasis never left him. 'I should like to wander over the face of the whole world,' he told his sister, Isobelle, 'then perhaps I'd find a place that would please me a little.' The tragedy of Rimbaud's later life, superbly chronicled by Nicholl, is that he never really did."—London Guardian"Nicholl has excavated a mosaic of semi-legendary anecdotes to show that they were an essential part of the poet's journey to become 'somebody else.' Not quite biography, not quite travel book, in the end Somebody Else transcends both genres."—Sara Wheeler, Daily Telegraph"At the end of Somebody Else Rimbaud is more interesting and more various than before: he is not less mysterious, but he is more real."—Susannah Clapp, Observer Review

    The author, who lives part of the year in Provence, provides personal stories along with traditional recipes.

    In Flowers for Jean Genet Winkler pays tribute to his liberator, Genet. Winkler describes his search for the facts of his mentor's life in this highly personal, eclectic biography, showing the life to which Genet was subjected by an uncomprehending and hostile society. Only in the last years of his life were Genet's literary accomplishments granted recognition. Among other honors he was awarded the Prix National, the highest French decoration.

    The boy and his two younger sisters help Pere gather material for a textbook, often accompanying him on field trips into their untamed backyard...Admirable."-School Library Journal

    A sequestered aristocracy promenaded in formal gardens while the military moved across the landscape, marking state boundaries with fortresses and refiguring the interior with canals and forests. Chandra Mukerji highlights the connections between the seemingly disparate activities of engineering and garden design, showing how the gardens at Versailles showcased French skills in using nature and art to design a distinctively French landscape and create a naturalized political territoriality.

    Thousands of weary French soldiers tramped past as she searched for food and shelter for them. But as the Germans advanced, Lady Fortescue realized that she was about to be trapped in France. So began her mad dash across the country to escape...

    For his magical installations, Boltanski collects old photos, clothing and personal objects, which are presented as archival artefacts tracing individual lives. His own autobiogaphy is itself presented as fiction, particularly in his early 'mischevious' performative work, which invents a self-identity using found photos. Boltanski often uses everyday documents - passport photographs, school portraits and family albums - to memorialize ordinary people: the unknown children killed in the Holocaust, the citizens of a Swiss town or the employees of a Halifax carpet factory. The spaces he creates, often filled with flickering lights and shadows, lie somewhere between little theatres and churches, generating a sense of hushed wonder and a poignant evocation of loss. Boltanski's work has been presented in museums and public sites all over the world, including the Lyric Theatre, London, where the artist devised the stage sets and lighting for Schubert's Winter Reise in 1996.Paris-based art historian Didier Semin follows Boltanski's work from the fictional biographies through to recent installations in the context of cultural and art historical developments in post-war France. Boltanski discusses his work and the role of the artist with art historian Tamar Garb, author of Sisters of the Brush (1994) and co-editor of The Jew in the Text (1995). Donald Kuspit, contributing editor to Artforum, focuses on Monument: The Children of Dijon, a work that consists of dozens of eerily lit, anonymous, black and white photographs of children long since lost to adulthood. Boltanski has chosen texts by master postmodern novelist Georges Perec, written in an inventory-like style that mirrors that of the artist. The book also features a selection of Boltanski's own writings, a beguiling and provocative blend of truth and fiction.

    her connections in Parisian high society made the Revolution dangerous for her, and after the fall of the Bastille she fled France both to save her own skin and to go on painting beautiful women and powerful men. Her wandering, cosmopolitan life took her to Bourbon Naples, Hapsburg Vienna, imperial St. Petersburg and Georgian London, ans wherever she went she attracted attention for her alluring portraits.Vigée Le Brun, in both her personal and her public life, was a woman of contradictions. A revolutionary female artist, she was apolitical reactionary who yearned for what he saw as the lost paradise of France before the Revolution. A proud and independent woman, she raised her daughter single-handedly, only tragically to lose her affection.Angelica Goodden's illuminating account of this extraordinary woman - the first biography of the artist in English for seventy-five-years - is also a vivid portrait of an age of society scandal and political turmoil. Drawing on contemporary records and Vigée Le Brun's own fascinating memoirs, Godden brings to life the remarkable range of friends and acquaintances the artist made through her work, from Catherine the Great to Madame de Staël to Emma Hamilton, whose suggestive portrait won Vigée Le Brun some notoriety. As her art regains favour, this definitive biography is a long-overdue reassessment of this sometimes scandalous, often devious but prodigiously gifted woman.

    Holt's Battlefield Guide to the Somme is, without doubt, one of the best-selling guide books to the battlefields of the Somme. This latest updated edition, includes four recommended, timed itineraries representing one day's traveling. Every stop on route has an accompanying description and often a tale of heroic or tragic action.Memorials, private and official, sites of memorable conflict, the resting places of personalities of note are all drawn together with sympathetic and understanding commentary that gives the reader a sensitivity towards the events of 1916.

    A few sections of this remarkable text have been published in fragments over the years, and then, with some reluctance on the part of the author, as a series of fragments in France in 1997.The ostinato-a persistently repeated musical figure or rhythm-is a continual, stubborn, and essential element of certain musical pieces and of the life that emerges in this book. A series of connected, loosely chronological, imagistic reflections that form an emotional history, Ostinato is neither poetry nor prose. Rather, it is a kind of antibiography, in which the facts of this life are less important than the style in which they are rendered. What is there to tell that matters? Neither history, nor memory, but emotions. It is not the events that make this work possible to understand but the work that gives the life its form and its music.Louis-René des Forêts (1918–2000) lived in Paris. He was best known for his novels and poetry and was awarded the Grand Prix National des Lettres for the entirety of his work.

    The history of the most famous Mardi Gras in the world is told by an expert "insider" through an insightful text and unique collection of drawings and photographs, most never before published.

    Through close analysis of eyewitness narratives from protesters and authorities in more than fifteen cities, William Beik examines the complex social interaction between angry crowds and hard-pressed authorities. He adds a completely new chapter to the history of the crowd and traces the difficult and fragile connections between elite and popular culture in early modern France.

    Rommel's growing awareness of the Allies' battle plans and his organization of the defense forces come into sharp focus in The Desert Fox in Normandy by World War II expert Samuel Mitcham, Jr. Mitcham uses little-known primary sources to tell the story of D-Day from the German perspective. His analysis reveals that Rommel led a brilliant campaign, despite his absence when the Allies landed. His insight and ability resulted in a powerful resistance against the invasion.

    In this work of historical fiction, all of the characters were actual people The incidents, situations and conversations are based on reality. It is the story of the martyred King Louis XVI and his Queen, Antoinette. The fruit of years of research, the book corrects many of the popular misconceptions of the royal couple, which secular and modernist historians have tried so hard to promote. Louis and Antoinette can only be truly understood in view of the Catholic teachings to which they adhered and within the context of the sacrament of matrimony. It was the graces of this sacramental life that gave them the strength to remain loyal to the Church, and to each other, in the face of crushing disappointments, innumerable humiliations, personal and national tragedy, and death itself. Theirs is not a conventional love story; indeed it is more than a love story. The fortitude they each displayed at the very gates of hell is a source of inspiration for all Christians who live in troubled times. Hardcover, smythe-sewn, cream paper, 205 pages.

    She went on to become one of the most acclaimed international writers and intellectuals of her day. Yet Marthe's life, for all its privilege, elegance, and achievement, was also hostage to history. In the first English-language biography of Princess Bibesco, Christine Sutherland brings back to life this courageous, unconventional woman, whose passion for literature, European politics, and the folk traditions of her remote country sustained her through two bloody world wars, the collapse of the old aristocratic order, a stormy marriage, and, eventually, the loss of her wealth, her home, and the promise of a free, democratic Romania.

    Peter French examines the world of the western, one in which death is annihilation, the culmination of life, and there is nothing else. In that world he finds alternatives to Judeo-Christian traditions that dominate our ethical theories, alternatives that also attack the views of the most prominent ethicists of the past three centuries. More than just a meditation on the portrayal of the good, the bad, and the ugly on the big screen, French's work identifies an attitude toward life that he claims is one of the most distinctive and enduring elements of American culture.

    In a century that did its best to keep women "in their place," Bonheur, like George Sand--to whom she was often compared--defined herself outside of the social and legal codes of her time. To the horror and bewilderment of many, she earned her own money, managed her own property, wore trousers, hunted, smoked, and lived in retreat with female companions in a little chateau near Fountainebleau named The Domain of Perfect Affection.Rosa Bonheur: The Artist's (Auto)Biography brings this extraordinary woman to life in a unique blend of biography and autobiography. Coupling her own memories with Bonheur's first-person account, Anna Klumpke, a young American artist who was Bonheur's lover and chosen portraitist, recounts how she came to meet and fall in love with Bonheur. Bonheur's account of her own life story, set nicely within Klumpke's narrative, sheds light on such topics as gender formation, institutional changes in the art world, governmental intervention in the arts, the social and legal regulation of dress codes, and the perceived transgressive nature of female sexual companionship in a repressive society, all with the distinctive flavor of Bonheur's artistic personality. Gretchen van Slyke's translation provides a rare glimpse into the unconventional life of this famous French painter, and renders accessible for the first time in English this public statement of Bonheur's artistic credo. More importantly, whether judged by her century's standards (or perhaps even our own), it details a story of lesbian love that is bold, unconventional, and courageous. "The remarkable life of Rosa Bonheur, one of the most highly decorated artists and certainly the best known female artist of her time in nineteenth-century France, is long overdue for further scrutiny." --Therese Dolan, Temple UniversityGretchen van Slyke is Associate Professor of French, University of Vermont.

    But a better model for the 1990s is to be found, according to Joan DeJean, in the culture wars of France in the 1690s—the time of a battle of the books known as the Quarrel between the Ancients and the Moderns. DeJean brilliantly reassesses our current culture wars from the perspective of that earlier fin de siècle (the first to think of itself as such), and rereads the seventeenth-century Quarrel from the vantage of our own warring "ancients" and "moderns." In so doing, DeJean shows that a fin de siècle taking place in the shadow of culture wars can be more a source of constructive cultural revolution than of apocalyptic gloom and doom. Just as the first fin de siècle's battle of the books served as the spark that set off the Enlightenment, introducing radically new sexual and social politics that laid the groundwork for modernity, so can our current culture wars result in radical, liberating changes—if we take an active stand against our own "ancients" who seek to stifle such reforms.

    Michael Clanchy introduces the reader to medieval life through the experience of Peter Abelard, the master of the Paris schools.

    This welcome translation from the earlier French tradition is wonderfully illustrated and looks at the relationship between architecture and spiritualism and explores how the former encapsulated and reflected the latter. After a historical overview of 12th and 13th century abbeys and discussion of the everyday life and activities of the monks and nuns, Kinder studies the different parts of the abbey building along with maps, plans and lots of photographs.

    

    Brockliss focuses on physicians, surgeons, and apothecaries, providing an overview of long-term changes in their ideas about medicine and their craft. But he also discusses other denizens of the medical world-- quacks, charlatans, wise women, midwives, herbalist and others--setting them within the broader context of social, economic, demographic, and cultural change.

    Lacroix was a student of the theater, and his first collection was heavily influenced both by his theatrical background and by the folklore of his native Provence: an embroidered cross of Camargue intertwines a heart, an anchor, and a cross - representing love, hope, and faith - on a skirt that is itself inspired by the caparacon, the mattress-like blanket that protects horses in a bullfight. Lacroix's dresses have been considered, on occasion, too elaborate to be worn in everyday life, and it is in theater really that Lacroix can put to use the flamboyant genius that landed him on the front cover of "Time "magazine, an honor shared in the fashion world only with Dior and Armani.

    This is a photographic chronicle of architectural treasures lost to civilization in the 20th century, featuring over 150 rare & haunting images of vanished structures of every kind. They include cathedrals & churches, medieval halls, convents & monasteries, ornate palaces, private dwellings, industrial & civic landmarks & early modern masterpieces. Each section is introduced by an architectural or conservation expert from the featured country.

    Although she became famous at the age of 23 for her fur-covered teacup, she subsequently suffered years of critical neglect, and her subversive work has only recently begun to receive the acclaim it deserves. This beautiful catalogue covers the full range of her art, embracing sculpture, painting, drawing, collage, assemblage, photography, fashion and jewelry design, and a selection of Oppenheim's poems. Now available to the trade in a paperback edition.

    Arranged by neighborhood and featuring color-coded entries keyed to easy-to-read maps, ACCESS guides are designed to help you explore a neighborhood or an entire city in depth. You'll never get lost with an ACCESS guide in hand, but you may well be lost without one. So whether you'r evisiting Miami or Montreal, you'll need a sturdy pair of walking shoes and plenty of ACCESS.

    Following his mother’s death, Alexandre joined his father in Normandy in 1776. Later, he moved to Paris alone. In 1786, after losing financial support for his libertine Parisian life, Thomas-Alexandre enlisted as a private in the French army under his mother’s name—Dumas. From there began a distinguished military career that saw early rapid advancement, peaked with high favor from Napoleon, and ended after unjust attempts on Dumas’ life.

    This book presents a critical edition of the treatise and tries to reconstruct its historical and intellectual context by examining the role of magic and astrology at court. By means of theological and philosophical arguments which he derives from Aquinas, Pignon demonstrates the dangers and deficiencies of divination. In three appendices editions of supplementary documents are supplied: a confession of a court-magician, two divinatory texts and a fictional prognostication on the house of Burgundy.

    Featuring twenty-five extraordinary tapestries woven at the Gobelins and Beauvais manufacturies, the catalogue also highlights three carpets, two knotted-pile screens, and two sets of embroidered bed hangings, one of which is the only complete lit la duchesse surviving from the period. Each entry includes complete historical and physical information on the piece and an accompanying commentary provides information on the literary, historical, and visual source of design imagery as well as the context of each textile's commission and production. For lovers of French decorative arts and connoisseurs of textiles, this beautiful book is must reading.

    John R. Hall argues that recent historical and intellectual developments require reworking basic assumptions about classes and their dynamics. The contributors effectively abandon the notion of a transcendent class struggle. They seek instead to understand the historically contingent ways in which economic interests are pursued under institutionally, socially, and culturally structured circumstances.In his introduction, Hall proposes a neo-Weberian venue intended to bring the most promising contemporary approaches to class analysis into productive exchange with one another. Some of the chapters that follow rework how classes are conceptualized. Others offer historical and sociological reflections on questions of class identity. A third cluster focuses on the politics of class mobilizations and social movements in contexts of national and global economic change.

    Outshone for posterity, by his flamboyant contemporaries, the Angevin family of Henry II and his feuding sons, Philip was in fact far more successful than any of them, astutely playing them off against each other and recovering for the French crown their vast estates in Northern France including Normandy itself. As well as reasserting the power of the Capetian monarchy, he was also leader of the Third Crusade. Drawing together all the threads in the life of one of France's most forceful rulers, this new study offers a study of the nature of monarchy in late medieval Europe as well as an insight into a subtle and secretive personality.

    Her tremendous contributions to the development of dance, largely unacknowledged after her death, are restored to us in this biography.

    He brings his insider's knowledge to this moving account of the most famous French soldier's last years in seclusion on a tropical island. After his defeat at Waterloo in 1815, Napoleon was exiled and imprisoned by the British on the island of St. Helena. He became increasingly withdrawn, surviving on a diet of memories that he recounted to the few people around him. But the book -- part history, part travelogue -- portrays the leader as a prisoner also of his mind, poisoned by nostalgia for his triumphs and grief over his defeats. "A haunting, unforgettable book....Kauffmann captures the desolate atmosphere of Napoleon's last home with evocative precision." -- Boston Globe